Today, several years removed from the hectic, whirlwind life on the ASP world tour, Ventura's Timmy Curran is in a much different place. He spends most of his sessions in the water at home, bouncing around between the multitude of world-class beachbreaks and world-class pointsbreaks that he grew up on. Unexpectedly, he's now championing a fairly successful music career, which helps keep the creative palette moist. But most of all, he's now a proud papa, which as any father can attest to, changes everything. ESPN Surfing caught up with the back-flipping maestro at home, enjoying all that's good about his golden years.
The joys of fatherhood, a full- blown music career, and your pro surfing gig, are you enjoying life off tour?
Well having a daughter has been the biggest blessing. We are so thankful, and knew that we would just have to make it work. It gets hard if I'm on a trip, especially anything over a few days. It all comes down to having an amazing wife that is able to pull it off when I'm gone. She's the best.
Musically speaking, it seems like you have found yourself into a good niche and have been able to play with some pretty incredible musicians in the relative short period of time you've been doing it?
I am having a blast! I would have never dreamed that I would get to share the stage with the bands I have. I'm so thankful to have such great friends and musicians that play with me. The whole music opportunity came out of the blue, and it's been such a rush.
Any plans for upcoming albums or compilations?
We just finished our second album, "Verses." It will be out in March, then we are looking to tour the album and a new film I am working on called the "Union Express" in May.
I understand your also working on a personal film project with Josh Landon. Can you tell us a bit about the Union Express and who is involved?
The film's by Josh Landon, who has directed a few great films including "Flow" the Al Merrick documentary. In this project basically I will be riding Amtrak from San Francisco to San Diego and hooking up with my surfer friends at each of the stops. I'll be spending about a week in each town, learning a little bit more about where my friends live, and what they do when they are not surfing. The list includes, Tom Curren, Rob Machado, Keith Malloy, Mike Losness, Ben Bourgeious, Taylor Knox, Cory Lopez, Nate Tyler, my little brother Nathaniel, and many more. I'm looking forward to filming once we get another swell that lasts more than two days.
When is the film set to release?
We are looking to release the film May 2010.
Are there any other projects coming up in the future?
After that we are going to be filming another Union Express project in Japan in the summer.
Been surfing anywhere good lately?
Nicaragua, another great trip of waves. I have never been down there and it was one of the best trips of my life for waves. We went to a couple spots that have not been surfed that much and got it pretty much as good as it gets.
Ventura has proven to be a hotbed for progressive surfing, between aerialists like yourself and Dane and stylemasters like Dan Malloy, what was it like growing up in the town?
Yeah, it's been really good growing up here in Oxnard/Ventura. There are so many great surfers from this area, so that keeps the bar always rising. There's a big variety of waves, so you can practice in almost everything. I really look up to a lot of the surfers from here, a lot of the best surfers from this area you may not even know their names.
I heard that Dan actually used to live in your garage at one point?
Not quite my garage, but downstairs we had a little lock out that he rented. It's fun having one of your best friends living in the same house. We had a lot of good surfs together and actually played a lot of music too.
I understand it's a small town and often people get mixed up between you and your brother?
I think we both get that almost every day. We look a lot alike, so I guess that's what happens.
Did you have any good advice for him when he went on tour?
I give him my two cents. He is a good listener, and gets it really quick. I don't have to tell him too much, just reinforce what he already knows.